Unlike other sectors, improvements in Genetic technology raise issues of morality. The new human gene editing technology CRISPR/CAS9 has raised many such concerns. Can the current patent system deal with these concerns or should morality be dealt with by the inventors themselves?
Over the past decades, universality as the cornerstone of human rights has been constantly challenged by non-western societies. Legitimacy and western political hegemony intent are the underlying grounds. In the battle between universality and cultural relativism, which one should prevail?
With Brexit, Yellow Jackets and EU-scepticism dominating the news and everyday discussions, I would like to direct our blog readers’ attention to some of the lessons that law and economics can offer to the (polarizing) debate on the future of the EU.
According to IGIR fellow Michelle A. C. Kristy, WTO law should be interpreted in a way that takes the evolution of sustainable development into account. Her PhD research suggests six components of sustainable development that enable WTO Members to better identify relevant WTO provisions and to...
On 17 December the Law Faculty of Maastricht University hosted an international colloquium entitled “Restoring Trust in Trade” in honour of Professor Peter Van den Bossche.
Authors may sentence fictional characters to death to counter unwanted transformation of their characters. The authorship that copyright vests in authors grants them indisputable authority over their creations, so that their characters do not die from users’ transformation.
Seventy years to the day have passed since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted. International human rights have since gained ground in theory, discourse, and practice. In this short post, I argue that for human rights to regain some of their traction, we should take care not to use...
Geographical Indications (also known as GIs) are signs used to safeguard the link between a product and its place of origin. In order for a product to be protected as a GI, the exact production methods and environmental factors need to be documented. It is easy to imagine that traditional products...
This post will focus on the Article 34(1) ICJ Statute requirement that ‘[o]nly states may be parties in cases before the Court’.
Protected geographical indications (PGI) cannot be granted for names deemed generic in the language of a territory. The recent example of Danbo cheese shows that if a name is deemed to be generic under a certain legal framework (Codex), it may not necessarily be so under another legal framework (PGI...
